I’m surprised they didn’t think of this sooner. Arguably, Guilty Gear and Blaze Blue by Arc System Works have some of the best sprites ever made for HD(ish). To have a side scrolling shoot em up with graphics like that is enough to make any sprite fan mad with anticipation. Let’s hope that the animation takes some notes from the Metal Slug games and we’ll be set!

In Chinese culture, the number 8 is a very “lucky” number. Countless Chinese friends of mine all have phone numbers with a series of 8′s in it. I heard that a phone number consisting of all 8′s in China was sold for like hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Then I read this story about how the phone number in Europe consisting of all 8′s was suspended because the last 3 owners of that number died within 10 years…

Played a little bit of Alan Wake yesterday. So far, it plays pretty much like Max Payne without the bullet time(afterall it was made by Remedy- the guys behind Max Payne). The character models/rigging, the movement, even the sound effect of a door you can’t open sounds exactly the same. Sure, there’s the new light em up before you shoot em thing which is kinda neat and they gave you bullet time in the form of bullet time dodging, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was playing Max Payne again after all these years. Graphics(not including the characters) are pretty sweet. Characters are modeled so bad though that they really look like mannequins with awkward mouthing motions. The saving grace is the effects are especially cool with the black stormy cloud thingy that messes stuff up in the world in real time. I am also digging the episodic nature of each level as well as the little tidbits of videos in the videoscreens that harken back to the dark/creepy/weird themes in old school pc games.

Now that Infinity Ward has pretty much broken up and moved on to another studio, Treyarch is taking over the reigns. There are rumors that Ravensoft would also be doing some COD stuff as well. I wasn’t a big fan of COD World at War. It felt a little generic to me after playing Modern Warfare. Black Ops looks interesting however, check the trailer above. Maybe Treyarch is getting a little more inspired now. I especially like the addition of the explosive arrows via Gears of War. Nice touch.

So the final product is here and that really was a “short film.” It was more or less a clip of one fight scene. Here are my thoughts:

The Good
- Costume design was pretty well done. A lot of times, you get those standard karate gi’s, but these looked a little more worn and thready, i.e. tough material.
- The look, high quality lenses and treatment of the film, FX were better integrated than other fan flicks.
- Choice for Ryu was pretty good.

The Bad
- Ken doesn’t look American.
- Short. Too short. With all the hype of a short film, was kind of expecting something with substance in terms of story.
- This one wasn’t so much bad as it could’ve been done better. Camera angles were a little weak. Could’ve used more dramatic angles for some of the punches, grabs, and specials.
- Character motivation is questionable. Ryu already knocks Ken down and then decides to finish him off with a fireball? During a sparring match? Does that make sense for Ryu’s character?
- Build up of the fight could’ve been better, more specifically, after seeing all the special moves and whatnot, we end the sequence with a standard jump kick that has less impact than the rest of the sequences.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it. It has a lot of good things going for it. But I would say I enjoyed the other one with less cooler looking actors just as much. What do you think?

Just a day before the Street Fighter Legacy fan film debuts, here we find another fan film. The actors don’t look much like the characters(Ken’s wig is super obvious) and they aren’t nearly muscular enough(I’m starting to think that the only way to actually pull off a Street Fighter movie is to make it a CGI film), but they can fight and the choreography is done really well. FX are a little cheeseball, but hey, it’s very well intentioned and the little nods to things like focus attacks are fun. Well done guys!

Don’t get me wrong, the Ipad is a very cool device for what it is. But, a common comment I hear from a lot of artists like me is “If it has a stylus, I would pick it up in a heartbeat.”
You see, the Iphone works on so many levels because it is something you can take with you. You use it on the go and it satisfies all your internet/media itches and let’s you kill time anywhere you want to. I could be wrong, but I’d venture to say that most people use their Ipads at home or at some static location. If I am at home, I’d rather just surf on my desktop and have the full capability of doing whatever I want to on the web. At home, if I want to play games, there are many fuller and richer experiences to be had on my Xbox 360 or my PS3.
I think, as artists, we want to have something that can act as a digital sketchbook that we can take on the go. And painting with your fingers on the Ipad is like, well… finger painting. We don’t really do that anymore(at least not since elementary school).
When I first saw the Courier previs vids, I was ecstatic. Here we have a device that promises unlimited sketching/brainstorming potential and also let’s you document and save all of your inspirations digitally while also giving you access to your media on the go. I’m sad to hear that the Courier has been canned– I think many artists would’ve liked to have one. Rest in Peace, Courier…

Got to play the Halo: Reach Beta today for about an hour. First impressions — Feels alot like Halo 3. Sure, controller layout has changed slightly, but the graphic fidelity doesn’t seem that much better(if at all) and sounds are exactly what you would expect from Halo. Movement feels slightly faster, but barely perceptible.

New weapons, I like the feel of the needler rifle. The new replacement for the battle rifle doesn’t seem much better than the standard machine gun– though admittedly, placing headshots has never been my strong suit during multiplayer.

Armor abilities – sprinting is only good for sneaking up behind someone for a melee kill. Rocket pack either makes you a floating target or lets you get the drop on someone. Shield seems useful to some degree. And cloaking doesn’t really matter in any of the oddball or skull modes since you get a big number over your head showing off where you are anyways.

I left feeling not too impressed overall. Just seems like more game modes for Halo 3 with no duel wielding. You die so often in the game that health packs are pretty much useless. By the time you even get to one, you’re probably already dead and respawned. I do like how some of the game modes are designed to funnel players into each other. However, after a while it just becomes a carousel of death that repeats with no real strategy to it. Perhaps this will change with the more objective based modes scheduled for the later release.